Abstract
International mobility programmes embed higher education (HE) students in a learning process in which they gain key knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs), some of them crucial in pursuing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We propose an innovative theoretical framework that links such KSAs to the UNESCO’s Key Competences for Sustainability and specific SDGs. Moreover, we analysed which KSAs are addressed by institutional initiatives to support mobility students, exposing their contribution to the SDGs. Finally, we revised mobile students’ needs of institutional support on KSA’s acquisition through focus groups. Results show that the KSAs most addressed by the institutional initiatives are related to several SDGs, but mainly to SDG4 (Quality Education) and SDG8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth). Notwithstanding, additional institutional support may be needed for students to leverage their learning outcomes and transform international mobility into a key driver of the necessary social change towards the achievement of SDGs.
Highlights
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) support lifelong learning, high-quality education, equity, and provide different resources to help prepare global citizens to tackle present-day and future challenges
We emphasized the importance of internationalization, in terms of acquisition of soft competences during student mobility experiences in the spirit of building responsible global citizenship able to cope with current challenges and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
In this study, we identified the KSAs that students may gain during mobility experiences and established a link among the mobility-related KSAs and the Key Competences for Sustainability and the
Summary
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) support lifelong learning, high-quality education, equity, and provide different resources to help prepare global citizens to tackle present-day and future challenges. They play an important role in creating a sustainable future for all citizens, which is a common objective of all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), see [1] for the case of European Universities. HEIs have enormous training potential to qualify those who are to implement these goals by providing students and university staff with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) needed to address the complex challenges of sustainable development along any life path they
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